Race to the Bottom (Warriors 106, Wizards 102)

After the Warriors’ recent, particularly brutal four game losing streak, we’re officially into the silver-lining stretch of the season. Wednesday’s match-up against the Washington Wizards was an ugly, poorly played, shambolic game, but not without its encouraging signs. For starters, the Warriors found a team in the NBA softer and more mistake-prone than they are — but there also were some constructive changes worthy of attention.

The Warriors won. To the extent that winning and losing still matters — 6 games out of the playoff hunt with only 22 games to go — that’s a good thing. We’ll overlook the epic collapse in the fourth quarter, the quick shots when the clock should have been run and the small-ball line-up getting abused for second-chance points. Those things aren’t particularly surprising given how poorly the Warriors have played of late, and are consistent with a team that’s coming to terms with the end of meaningful basketball this season. The Wizards looked more clueless when it mattered, so the Warriors managed to win.

That said, the game held some encouraging surprises.

Ekpe Udoh got his first start of the year and logged 30 minutes. They were far from flawless, as should be expected for most rookies, but they were marked by his typically solid defense. For a Warriors team that had been getting killed from the inside out recently, having some fundamentally solid defense in the paint seemed to stabilize the team. When Udoh took over on Blache, the march to the basket he had enjoyed against David Lee largely stopped. The Wizards also didn’t get much easy penetration thanks to his help defense. Udoh’s back-to-back, close-range blocks may have been the difference in a game that hung by a basket for the final minute. Udoh’s performance was wildly uneven other than his defense — it increasingly looks like he may have poor hands, constantly bobbling passes, and 2 rebounds in 30 minutes is worrisome any way you spin it — but for a team that has always prioritized offense over defense, it was refreshing to see Smart change things up.

Part of the Warriors’ usual offense-above-all mentality is the idea that either Curry or Ellis must be on the court at all times. That’s not a radical idea, as they’re the Warriors’ best two players, but the team has shown for some stretches that they can survive without them — and even thrive due to improved defense and ball movement in their absence. The Warriors had such a stretch Wednesday in the second quarter, adding 8 points to the lead (including a rousing 17-4 run) with a line-up of Law, Williams, Wright, Radmanovic and Biedrins/Udoh on the court for 8 minutes. The Wizards stopped getting easy baskets. The Warriors started getting better shots thanks to a faster tempo, quicker ball movement and generally aggressive offensive play. The entire energy level picked up on the court, which is exactly what you want from your second unit.

As for the rest of the team, they had their ups and downs.

Curry had an aggressive, mistake-free game until the fourth quarter. He was doing a good job getting his own shot going while finding his teammates and doing the dirty work on the boards. But when the fourth quarter rolled around, everything suddenly fell apart. He was no longer taking good shots and seemed unable to get the ball moving to his teammates. He’s obviously still learning how to be a point guard in this league, but one area he needs to focus on is how to slow down the tempo without killing the offensive flow. Far too often when the Warriors take their foot off the gas to run clock, the car seems to veer off the road.

Ellis’ game arc was nearly the opposite of Curry’s. Ellis looked cold early and seemed to force up some shots. He was disengaged defensively on Nick Young and getting embarrassed. But after the first quarter, he upped his defensive intensity and let the offense gradually come to him. While he spent the fourth quarter mostly on the bench due to foul trouble, he hit a few key baskets to save the win and played solid defense on Young (who was blisteringly hot despite Ellis’ efforts). File this one under “Games where Ellis is not dominant, but helps get the win.” As (if?) the Warriors become a better team, these types of performances will be key.

It’s a minor thing in this stat-and-highlight dominated world, but I’ve continually been blown away this season by how Dorell Wright never has back-to-back bad games. He bounced back again against the Wizards, playing excellent defense, rebounding and moving the ball. His shot was off, but he didn’t force it. He was the common denominator in the Warriors two big runs (second and third quarter). The team needed every one of his 45 minutes to secure the win.

David Lee redeemed himself slightly in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, fighting to keep alive some key rebounds that helped secure the win. But if it weren’t for Lee’s matador defense against Blatche most of the evening and frighteningly passive offensive night, the Warriors likely wouldn’t have needed his heroics in the first place. The post All-Star game collapse by the Warriors has raised the usual questions about the Ellis/Curry backcourt, but it’s put Lee’s deficiencies front and center for the first time this year. More people are beginning to ask the question that should have been raised last summer: does David Lee give this team what it needs to become a consistent winner? His rebounding hasn’t helped much, if at all, with the Warriors still among the worst in the league. When his mid-range jumper isn’t falling, he contributes almost nothing offensively. He’s a great passer for a big man, but he’s not getting paid $80 million to be a good passer (and, by all accounts, a great locker room guy). When the Warriors stop telling stories about winning and start focusing on actually winning games, they’ll need to figure out how exactly Lee (and his contract) fit into that picture.

Andris Biedrins off the bench looked a lot like Andris Biedrins in the starting line-up. Against a soft Washington team he grabbed some more rebounds, but he also gummed up the offense and didn’t contribute much defensively. He’s down to 13 minutes (and dropping). If he’s going to be as unproductive as he’s been the last month, the fewer the minutes the better.

Reggie Williams and Vladimir Radmanovic had nice nights filling their roles. Both scored well off the bench. Both contributed key rebounds. If the Warriors could get these types of performances from them every night, Smart would likely have much more confidence in his bench. Against tougher, more disciplined opponents, I doubt either fares as well. But against the Wizards, their contributions made a difference.

This wasn’t exactly the momentum-building performance the team needed heading into Boston on Friday, but it’ll have to do. The Boston game will be a good test to see if Smart and his players have figured out any solutions to the Celtics’ game-plan that absolutely crushed them in the second half of last week’s meeting. Hoping that your opponent makes more mistakes than you do may cut it against the Wizards, but against any quality team it’s an invitation to be embarrassed.

Adam Lauridsen

Post navigation

“this is why maybe the warrior fans are confused and deep in the trap of the dark cloud that has been placed upon you”

Huh? You best be heading home now son. You’re starting to lose it….

And JT and Meir, (or should I say dudes?)

What’s “whack” is how many posts you guys went back and forth on Meir’s use of cribs and dudes! 🙂

nelliesbiggestfan

JT

Nellie never built a team that won a title and joe dumars did. Does that make dumars better than nellie at building teams ? perhaps. But dumars sure has a mess on his hands now doesn’t he ? traded billups and signed villanueva and gordon to some big bad contracts.

nellie built a really good bucks team in the late 70’s early 80’s the Run TMC team for the warriors, the mavericks team that went to the WCF in 02-03 and the we believe team with mullin.

pretty good record if you ask me .

The Oracle

Rehashing old arguments about Nelson and player development.

We won’t come to an agreement.

What I think we can all agree on is we had 4 high to mid lottery picks during the time when Nelson was coach, and none of them are currently on the roster, none of them developed into players here, and none of them got us much if anything in trade. We got little to no value, as a franchise, from 4 high 1st round picks. And nothing on the 2nd round picks either. And we traded a conditional 1st round pick, beyond that for MW who Nelson also wouldn’t play.

I think the thing we can all agree on is that as a franchise we need to do better than that. Blame Mullin, Nelson, Riley, Cohan, whoever you want. But you can’t get nada out of that many 1st and 2nd round picks and hope to dig the franchise out of the no playoffs hole we’ve been in for decades with one exception.

My opinion, is if you take raw players in the 1st round, you better have a plan and a coach to develop them if you want to realize their value, or hope to realize any value. Otherwise, trade the pick, or pick differently.

But we can’t repeat the mistakes of the recent past with draft picks going forward.

And we did make a good pick, and Nelson did a good job, developing Curry who has definitely turned into a contributor to the team and a player asset that would be very valuable in trade if we wanted to do that. We got our money’s worth from the Curry pick at least, but not the previous 4 picks.

Which is why I’m happy, although I believe his upside is limited, to see us giving Udoh a chance to play and develop.

willow

NBF,

Isn’t Darko the starting center for an NBA team now? Yes, I know, so was AB. Point is, Darko did improve with playing time/development and will likely not be considered a complete bust when his career is over. Disappointing, probably.

Interesting comments about Curry being less effective when he is guarded closely/aggressively. Imagine that.

Dave in LA

Currywho???
“spam is what you eat. that’s insulting spam”

You are absolutely right. Comparing your posts to Spam IS insulting to Spam! Thank you for clarifying that point for us.

Don’t you have a bridge to hide under somewhere?

nelliesbiggestfan

still wondering who are the top 5 assistant coaches for player development in the NBA. And I would like to know who they developed and who they are developing now.

that’s a lot of using the word develop, sounds like an oracle post.

The Oracle

When you say Nellie built teams, I’d say Nelson has an unusual system and was able to find players and recognize players that had the skill sets that he valued. He found guys to fit his system, sometimes finding guys that were not valued by other GM’s such as smaller PF’s and Centers with no low post game.

I disagree that he never developed players. I believe he was especially good at developing guards, and we could make a good list of PG’s and guards that learned and excelled under Nelson. His record with bigs is much less impressive imo.

So yes, Nelson helped to build teams, understood the skills and players he wanted for his system, and developed player, taught/coached etc players to learn his system and how he wanted them to play.

I think it’s ridiculous to say that coaches don’t develop players. Teaching a player how to play, what to do, what not to do, decision making, is all part of coaching and part of player development. Nelson definitely developed many players imo.

The Oracle

They don’t call them player development coaches. but there are assistant coaches that come in and teach players to do things and help young players to learn the game. They all are developmental coaches imo if they are helping players to improve their game. Isn’t that what all assistant coaches do, work with the players on improving parts of their game?

The Oracle

Larry Brown screwed Darko. Of course, he had a championship team and didn’t have the time/inclination to develop a young big with the all star talent ahead of him.

I believe Darko was drafted without Brown’s approval, also, before Brown was hired, so Brown had no buy in on this player. Correct me if I’m wrong on this.

Anyway, it was a bad situation for Darko and I do believe that the situation held back his development. Certainly he would have been better off coming in and playing for a different team and coach where they were committed to developing him and where there wasn’t as much talent in front of him on the depth chart. Yes, it did hold him back to miss that year of development imo. Good for him he made it in the league anyway.

dr_john

So Melo shoots 41%
Lin shoots 42%
Ellis shoots 43%

Which one of these things are not the same?

Ok, so last 10 games, sue me.

JT

I don’t want to flame you NBF, but I think that it is a ridiculous proposition to state that coaches do not play a part in player development.

But hey, your opinion is your opinion!

The Oracle

NBF’s opinion that coaches don’t help develop players is one of the craziest statements I have ever heard on this blog.

I have been around sports all my life, and around coaching, and have personally been developed, and helped develop many players. A good coach helps a player to become a better player in so many ways, and no one becomes a great player without good coaching along the way.

Do you think Curry’s nice shooting form just happened naturally? You don’t think his Dad, at a young age, taught him the right way to shoot and worked with him to develop that sweet stroke we see today, along with other coaches and basketball pro’s along the way?

There is zero chance that Curry’s nice shot happened independently, that it is just a natural thing that he developed without great coaching and instruction.

Many of NBF’s theories are absurd, but this is probably the most ridiculous of many.

G.O.

I was going to say that by his posts Currywho??? must be 8 years old. But that would be a insult. Because 8 year olds are very smart.
He must be younger. Why else would so many people be questioning his posts. Just like Meir, and Data.

…scotch

To the ‘Blog-mosquito’ otherwise known as Currywho & all his multiple permutations…

Some friendly advice, the next time you go to your therapist, bring some of your posts! It might help him to help you…

(Now that wasn’t very nice of me…but I’m “annoyed-out”!)

…scotch has a warning!

…scotch

Now here’s hoping we belong on the same court & Smart doesn’t have a defeatist attitude…”It’s the Celtics”, almost as bad as Allen’s “They don’t belong on the same court as us”…

TheCity

Some good posts. And of course, scrolling past the long, repetive meir posts makes for quick easy reading.

I wonder though, will meir ever be able to make a point without all his usual verbosity?

dr_john

C’mon guys,

Currywho has a point. It would be a lot better if he, in his first 142 games was at least something like 69-73.

I’d trade Curry for that guy probably?

Who?

coltraning

OK.

not to channel Frank, but score with Udoh, 20-19, Smart sends in Biedrins, score now 30-20, celtics, just sayin’

Sam

I’m 3-2 in pickup games at the Pentagon City Sports and Fitness Club, but stupid NBA scouts are always after big name losers like Curry. They never pay us winners any attention.

coltraning

btw, as much of a homer as Tommy Heinsohn is, fun to listen to him rather than fitzgerald. If you are gonna be a homer, may as well be a legend homer like Tommy H…

Kanter upside seems to be Marc Gasol…Jonas upside is (dare I say this?) David Robinson. But Kanter will contribute sooner.

Tarheel Warrior

Valanciunas shoots 87% on FTs. How many centers do that? Obvious to me the kid has a great shooting touch.

nelliesbiggestfan

Has oracle done any research on how the NBA as a whole does in “developing” draft picks ? my guess is no

Oracle doesn’t know how many players picked 18th in the draft actually make it the league so he has no business judging how the warriors have done with their mid first round picks.

oracle doesn’t know how many players picked 8th in the draft are still in the league or what their contributuions are either.

if you look at past drafts its kind of shocking how many washouts there really are. No one hits on every pick, you have to judge people over time , over many drafts.

I don’t know where oracle gets this 0 for 4 business. bellinelli and BW were misses but AR wasn’t and curry was a big hit. If AR hadn’t been traded for a better player he would have been a contributer for the warriors. that’s 2 for 4, not bad at all for a 7, and 8 pick and two mid round picks.

In addition players like KA and williams were found which makes up for some of the 2nd round misses.

I think oracle should compile some information from other teams to see how things really are before he rips his own team to shreds.

CurryBoyWho?

it’s good to know that jeff adrien was called back up to not play. this is the new strategy by keith smart

I yi yiyi yi

About Klove, did he get delevoped? seems as if we all were talking about how he could not Play in the NBA when first drafted. Seems as if every year there are suprizes. To say coached dont delelop players is just plain incorrect. And this draft o many have it as the weakest in memorie but even with that I will bet that in two years we will be talking about some one who passes under the radar. Point? keep scouting the college ranks, the d league Europe and anyone of the NBA player who might be good with DELEVOPMENT. How? NEW COACH and NEW GM

dr_john

The answer:

Michael Jordan. What a loser. First three years in the league, his teams were below .500.

Of course, 30-52 actually made the playoffs.
Then 40-42 made the playoffs.

His first 142 games would have been worse if he were not injured in his 2nd year.

Meantime, it sure is nice to see Lin in street clothes and Thornton get his first Warrior’s minutes before the current edition of Adrien DNP-CD.

Not.

Coltraning—unfortunately, something like 8 personal fouls are not available to Udoh.

That old, slow Celtic team: isn’t it galling that they can fastbreak the Warriors?

Wow…I am sure Adam will have a new post on this, but this LOSS is, IMO, one of the 3-4 BEST games the Ws have played this year, maybe better than any win except the two against Chicago and OKC. To go into Boston, one of the two best teams in the league, and have it come down to the last 10 seconds is fantastic. I have zero complaints and Monta put on a truly magnificent offensive show…I do not believe the team could have played any better as a whole…bravo!

Tarheel Warrior

Why we lost:

Krstic – 26 mins, 11pt. 6 rbs, 1 blk.

AB + EU — 31 mins, 4 pts, 3 rbs, 0 blks.

Out centers suck — Frank-ly, both of them.

meir34

A missed three late, a bad turnover late. Main reason for the loss was Acie Law coming out.

Chicken Curry but no mention of the guy who almost singlehanded won the game for us?? Spit it out Tarbeel, it’s not too difficult. Try it MMMMMooMomomoMonta!

meir34

And frankly there were some bad non calls late in the game. Replay showed Monta killed on one drive no call, Lee on two, guys on his arms. Ball out of bounds off Ray, called for them. Technical on the Cossack to put us down by 4 not 3. And to give them the ball to boot.

Our two best players, by far out two best, played the best. BTW, Lacob even traveled with the team. Got to love this owner, he’s like any of us fans only more so.

Sam

Tarheel warriors,

Last post before I pass out.

I think Kanter if healthy is the bruis/scorer we need. Lee or Uodoh both need a post player who can rebound or score and the Lithuanian may be sabonis incarnate but I need to see more. Espacially after their most recent export to the Warriors.

Again I have been drinking so I expect to be appalled by this post tomorrow.

He founded the Prepare B entertainment in 2002. The company has made many films. His connection with Angelina Jolie is a single of the most talked about matter in Media. They are married. The Birth of their initial kid “Shiloh” attracted so considerably media interest that Jolie and Pitt made the decision to sell the very first pictures of their child, The right’s were acquired by “men and women” for over $4.one million and British magazine “Hello” for approximately $3.5 million. The proceeds of these had been donated to charity.